From my tribe I take nothing, I am the maker of my own fortune. – Tecumseh

Earlier this year I joined Third Tribe out of interest generated by Chris Brogan. He was passionate about it and I was convinced that I needed to be a part of it. So I joined and listened to some podcasts and posted on the forums and ultimately did not feel connected to this new Tribe. A few months later I was letting my subscription expire and I emailed Chris. He was very cordial and cool, he did not try to convince me that I should stick around. He explained to me that he felt the value was really in the forums specifically people getting business questions answered. So essentially I went on about my business for a while and I pinged Chris back recently and something occurred to me. Perhaps the reason that I didn’t see the value of Third Tribe, I already had one – Amplify.com.

4 Reasons Amplify is my third tribe:

I am directly connected with the founders/developers.

I get business questions answered.

I receive direct business benefits from being on the site.

I am networking with quality people that I learn from.

Direct connection with the Founders/Developers

Eric Goldstein was one of the first people to respond to my post on Amplify.com and he is co-founder and CEO. I’ve since gotten to know Eric, Dave Grossman, Chris Parandin and exchanged some comments with Derek and Eric W. from time to time. I can say with honesty I truly enjoy communicating and supporting the Amplify guys, I consider myself a self-assigned community advocate for their site. I’ve never received any financial support for my contributions and I don’t expect any.

Getting Business Questions Answered

Admittedly my best resource for business questions is offline – my network of friends, members of business groups, mentors, etc. There are two places I get answers to business questions “online”. One of them is LinkedIn Q & A and the other is Amplify.com. The most receptive and helpful responses come from the Amplify community. Many LinkedIn answers are self-serving, whereas the Amplify community tends to be much more “real” and honest.

Direct Business Benefits

I am a consumer in this regard; I have found more vendors and partners and fostered those relationships via Amplify. I love being the “buyer” and not the seller, because I hate selling. What I do enjoy is building relationships and helping people. Building social capital is great fun and it suites me well. I would rather have my customers see what I am doing and come to me and ask for it. I know some people are reading this and shaking their heads. Don’t worry, when I see need that I can help with I sell, because I know I can help.

Networking with Quality People

I’ve met more quality people on Amplify than any other place in social media. I learn every day from my Amplify sources. These people have added so much value to my day to day learning I cannot thank them enough. What I have done is written about it and tried to recognize and share those people via my blog and Amplog. One meaningful example is my weekly recommendation of the week that I post on my Amplog. Another example is the article I wrote “Why Sources are more valuable than Followers” that shares some of my favorite amplify users with others.

Closing thoughts

So is Amplify my Third Tribe? I think it is. It may not have all the features that Third Tribe does but for practical purposes Amplify works in this capacity for me. It provides the value that Third Tribe offers, while also rewarding me by making my content public and contributing in a positive way to my social media footprint. One final thought about Chris Brogan, he is a classy guy. I will check out everything he does, I really enjoy his insights and this is meant by no means to minimize the great things that are happening on Third Tribe for many people.